Lasagna Recipe

 Hello Everyone,

I documented every step of the process to show you how I made this wonderful lasagna for company. The best part is that I don't have to cook tonight, and the leftovers are even better!

Here are a couple of disclaimers that you have to know prior to making this recipe.

1.  You have to really like the people who you are making this recipe for because you will use every pan, bowl and utensil in your kitchen.  It is much worse than making a full Chinese dinner.

2.  You will be using 2 of your precious eggs in this recipe.  Eggs in my area are harder to come by than hens' teeth.

3. You can't clean your kitchen as you go because you feel like an act on the Ed Sullivan show that is spinning plates on little sticks.  You are zipping between one bowl to pan to another.

Having said all of this, and warned you about the process, this lasagna recipe is worth the effort.  As the aromas of garlic, Italian sausage and onions fill your kitchen, mama mia you will be bursting into choruses of Volare!

The best pans in my kitchen are cast iron.  They are fully seasoned to perfection, and I LOVE them.  Here are the steps and the full recipe is at the end of the post.

Step One:

Cook sausage, ground chuck, green onions and garlic in olive oil until the meat is browned, stirring to crumble meat; drain on paper towel.

Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, oregano, dash of basil, salt, and pepper; stir well.  

Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, stirring frequently.  You are supposed to cover and chill for 8 hours.  I skipped this step and assembled the lasagna and put it in the refrigerator for almost 8 hours.

Step Two:

Chop the bacon and cook in a large skillet until crisp; remove and drain on paper towels.

Combine bacon, spinach, Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, egg yolk, and olive oil.

Step Three:

In another bowl, combine Monterey Jack cheese and ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, green onions, fresh parsley, egg, basil and marjoram.

Place 4 cooked lasagna noodles in a lightly greased 13" x 9" 2" baking dish.

Layer on half of the meat mixture.

Then half of the ricotta mixture.

Then half of the spinach and bacon mixture.

Repeat the process again.

Meat, cheese, spinach and bacon.

Then top it off with Jack cheese and bake.  I popped it in the oven as the guests arrived and we ate appetizers and enjoyed a glass of wine while it baked for 45 minutes.

Add a salad, bread, glass of red wine and you will be in lasagna heaven. Mama Mia here I go again.....Volare, oh oh......

Our esteemed guest, Arno from Arnold, (his words not mine) had two helpings and he thought it was delicious! 

RECIPE

1 pound Italian sausage with casing removed

½ pound ground chuck

½ cup minced green onions

2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed

3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

¼ teaspoon dried whole oregano, dash of dried whole basil

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 cup cottage cheese

½ cup minced green onion

½ cup minced fresh parsley

1 egg, beaten

½ teaspoon dried whole basil, crushed

½ teaspoon dried whole marjoram, crushed

8 slices of bacon

1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup seasoned breadcrumbs

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons olive oil

10 cooked lasagna noodles

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

Enjoy your Sunday.  I will be watching football playoff games and enjoying leftover lasagna!

Soon,

Lynn

Machine Quilting in the Pines

 Hello Everyone,

This week I've turned my attention to marking and machine quilting Calico Cottages.  I hope to release the pattern at the end of the week.  I decided to do crosshatching around the cottage for an old-fashioned look and feel. 

This quilt is only 64" x 64" which is a nice size for my long arm.  It still takes me awhile to get it perfectly lined up and loaded on the machine.  I made one pass of feathers across the top and then I got too cold.  My long arm is in my garage, and it was a balmy 42 degrees as I started to quilt.  When my knees start to knock, my stitches get a bit wonky!  I do have a small heater by my side, but it just doesn't take the chill off.  We are supposed to get another round of snow tomorrow, not much, but the temps will be dropping like a stone thrown into a well as the storm sweeps down from Canada.

Yesterday we drove down to Angels Camp to pick up a printing order of block layout sheets.  There's a wonderful couple who run a small copy center there and I love to buy local and support their business.  I can email them the order and they have it printed and folded in no time at all.

While we were in Angels Camp, we did our grocery shopping in a store which is much larger than our local market.  We are like two kids in a candy store when we shop there.  Items that we usually never purchase end up jumping into our cart and the lengthy receipt reflects our impulse buying.

We stopped at a new barbecue place in Murphys, and picked up a sandwich and took it to Indian Rock Winery for a picnic.  It was chilly but look at that blue sky with just a whisper of clouds.  It felt soooo good to get out of the cabin with my hubby and Mazey!  Neither one of us get cabin fever, but we do enjoy a day on the town.  Notice I said 'day' on the town.  I can't remember the last time we spent a 'night' on the town.

We have friends coming over tonight for dinner.  I'm making my favorite Lasagna recipe.  I'll try to remember to take pictures of it and post the recipe.  The recipe has bacon in it.  You can never go wrong with bacon!

Soon,

Lynn

Houses Under Construction

 Hello Everyone,

Yesterday I spent the day in the classroom with the Independence Hall Quilters, my home guild, and taught them how to foundation paper-piece little houses.

By the end of the day, we had the beginnings of a neighborhood of cute little 3" x 3" houses.

The girls braved the chilly temperatures and the 4-foot-long icicles hanging from the eaves of the Hall to be in the classroom.  We've had such a harsh winter; the guild hasn't been able to meet in person in several weeks.  Everyone was looking forward to getting out and getting together and we made the most of our time together.

Independence Hall has a spacious classroom which easily accommodates 20 quilters and all of their assorted quilting gear.

The little houses are the same houses in my Calico Cottages pattern, which I'm going to try and release next week.  The pattern is out for proofing as we speak.

I want to get it on my long-arm this week and quilt it so I can get a decent picture of it for the front of the pattern.  This picture that I took in the snow may have to be the front cover if I don't get it done. 

Over the span of several days, we had 18" of snow dumped on us.  We liberated one of the cars last week, but the other one is still buried.  Now the snow is living up to the infamous name of Sierra cement.  It's been so cold and now it is so frozen.  Our daffodil bulbs are going to have a hard time fighting their way through the frozen ground to catch a glimpse daylight this Spring.

We won't be picnicking anytime soon on our back deck.

Underneath the ice in the middle of the picture is Snowflake Lake.  We sit at that picnic table to enjoy a bite to eat during good weather.

The day the sun came out, my sunglasses were nowhere to be found.

We've been snug as two bugs underneath our winter-white blanket of snow.  We had a couple of power outages, but they didn't last for days at a time.....just a few hours at most.  One of my jobs is shoveling the walkway from the house to the garage.  It's more like a luge run as you can start at the top and slide all the way down to the front porch face up, feet first and flat on your back. I think I made a qualifying run the other day for the Jamaican bobsled team.   

There's not a bag of ice-melt to be found in town and we exhausted the contents of our bag.  Yesterday, Mr. Joe found a bag of water-softener salt to do the job and it works just as well at twice the price.  We will pay anything to be able to keep our footing and stay upright and vertical as possible.   

My new block of the month is coming together nicely.  The weather has been so bad that I've hunkered down inside for days at a time in blissful creation in my sewing room.  I should be able to give you a sneak peak at the fabric and my project next month.

Have a great week and stay upright!

Soon,

Lynn